DETROIT (WXYZ) — Cass Technical High School, the only school in the Detroit Public Schools Community District with a lacrosse team, played the first indoor lacrosse game in the history of Detroit Tuesday night.
The 8-year-old boys varsity team played at the newly opened-domed fieldhouse at Chandler Park on the city's east side. They faced off against St. Clair.
Watch Christiana Ford's video report below:
Cass Tech senior Ja’Von Waters Jr. scored seven goals during the historic game. He decided to pick up a lacrosse stick just a few years ago.
"I started playing lacrosse my freshman year in high school. I’m actually a swimmer, but I wanted to pick up something else, try something different," Waters said.
Waters understands the importance of what the team represents for the city.
"It just means a lot for us as a team and as a community bringing it up for the underprivileged," Waters said. "The things is with lacrosse, people love to say it’s a money sport, it’s a rich people sport, so to bring that to city of Detroit where it’s not a lot of money in it, it means a lot to the city.”
Cass Tech varsity head coach Liam Mcilroy, fondly known as Coach Mac, said the program is focused on expanding the sport's reach.
"I think it’s incredible. One of the things we talk about in our program a lot is we’re still actively growing the game in Detroit and this is a sport for every young man no matter where you’re from," Mcilroy said.
Alex Allen, president and CEO of the Chandler Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that formed in 2014, said growing opportunities like this in the city was the goal of opening the new domed fieldhouse. The city of Detroit worked closely with the community on the project, including the nonprofit. Throughout the year, Chandler Park Conservancy offers youth camps, skateboarding lessons, sports programming including lacrosse and more at the park.
"This is a dream come true for the community and for the lacrosse program and everybody else that uses the dome," Allen said. "We’ll probably see a lot more games here. We’ll see some youth kids, some younger kids."
Allen says they work with groups like Motor City Lacrosse and Detroit Youth Lacrosse to continue offering opportunities there.
The promise of growth is inspiring hope for students like Ike Lewis Jr., a senior at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, which is still without a lacrosse team. Lewis watched the game from the sidelines.
"It helps me a lot and I’m proud of this team because I know most of the players and I play with them during the off-season and box, and it just helps me a lot," Lewis said.
Coach Mac said expanding access to the sport is the bigger picture they will continue playing for.
"We’re going to maintain our posture here playing, but we want to make sure that everybody, whatever high school you’re at has an opportunity soon," Mcilroy said.
They want to put the city on the map for the sport.
"Lacrosse is certainly in Detroit going to be here for the long term. I think we’re going to set the standard nationally for how we grow the game here and the effort and the grit we have," Coach Mac said.
—————
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
